Pepper yesterday filed a complaint with the IRS, charging that the non-profit organization, organized as a 501(c)3, is both engaged in excessive lobbying and involved with a political campaign. 501(c)3 organizations are only permitted to do an insubstantial amount of lobbying -- a maximum of twenty percent of annual expenditures for small non-profits like Tobacco-Free St. Louis -- or risk losing their non-profit status.

As Daily RFT first reported March 8, Tobacco-Free St. Louis recently received a county contract (paid for by federal stimulus dollars, natch!) worth $545,000. The group was charged with "developing and implementing an education and advocacy plan to educate St. Louis County Council members about the
need to remove exemptions from St. Louis County's current smoke-free
ordinance."
That sounded an awful lot like lobbying to us. But the group's director, Pat Lindsey, has insisted to us that's not the case. The exemptions to the county smoking ban are on the way out anyway, she told us -- her group hasn't lobbied, and no lobbying be needed.

Pepper saw our article; he told Daily RFT he was also concerned because the group donated money to the campaign to enact a strict smoking ban in O'Fallon. Voters approved that ban on Tuesday, although Pepper has vowed to do whatever he can on the council to weaken it, water it down or otherwise castrate it.